Interbasket

Today, the FIBA World Qualifying Tournament begins with 12 national teams from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania trying to grab one of the three remaining spots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics next month.

Follow the intense action of every game, the heated battles, and all the upsets in our 2008 Olympic Qualifier Forum.

So, with three teams coming out of Athens, will these three wildcards have an advantage because they’ll already be battle-tested for Beijing next month?

Will Greece, the tournament favorites led by star-guards Theo Papaloukas and Dmitrios Diamantidis, meet everyone’s expectations as one of those three teams going to the Olympics?

Daniel Santiago rejoins the national team, along with mainstays Carlos Arroyo and Larry Ayuso, to make an always-dangerous and proud Puerto Rican National team.

Brazil will have Tiago Splitter, Marcelinho Machado, and Alex Garcia, but will be without their leading scorer Leandro Barbosa, as well as without NBA big men Nene and Anderson Varejao.  It’s going to be a tough run for the Brazilians.

Speaking of big men, Germany has added NBA star-center Chris Kaman to their already strong front line that includes all-world player Dirk Nowitzki, as well as the solid Ademola Okulaja and Patrick Femerling.

Without key player Matej Smodis, Slovenia is still a strong, well-rounded team that features captain Rasho Nesterovic, Jaka Lakovic, Uros Slokar, and Erazem Lorbek.  The Slovenians will want to send Nesterovic out on a high note, as Nesterovic will retire from international competition in 2008.

One can never expect an easy game against the Tall Blacks from New Zealand, whom are led by national team veterans Kirk Penney and Pero Cameron.

And can Lebanon do it again despite losing center Joe Vogel and on the heels of Fadi El-Khatib’s proclamation that they have no chance of defeating Greece?

The rest of the Qualifying Tournament field includes the national teams from Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, and Korea.  Check out the rosters, follow the matches, and discuss everything in our forum dedicated the 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Sources and Links: FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Interbasket), Olympic Qualifying Tournament Message Board (Interbasket Forum), FIBA Official Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament Site (FIBA), Can Lebanon beat the odds? (Interbasket), Fadi El-Khatib: Lebanon has no chance against Greece (Forum), Croatian NT for Olympic qualies 2008, Slovenian NT, 2008 Greek NT, Lebanon NT 2008, 2008 Cameroon NT, Canada National Team, Germany NT, Puerto Rico National Team ‘08, 2008 New Zealand Tall Blacks, 2008 Korea NT for Olympics Qualifier, Cape Verde National Team, Brazil NT 2008

Theodoros Papaloukas Leads Greece in Amazing Comeback against previously unbeaten Slovenia.

Greece 63: Slovenia 62
In the final game of the Eurobasket Quarterfinals, the Greek National Team came up big when it mattered most - the last few minutes of the game.

Greece looked as if they were finished, the majority of the game Hellas played without much energy nor motivation, as they had during most of Eurobasket. Hellas had played a miserable second-half up until six minutes left in the fourth quarter with the Slovenians leading by 16 points, 58-42.

The Greeks never gave up. They went on a decisive 21-4 run, including a 10-0 run that spanned the last 1:32. It came as no surprise that the comeback was led by Theo Papaloukas, who scored 11 of his 17 points in that six-minute span, in defeating the shocked Slovenians. Jaka Lakovic, who earlier in the tournament hit a game-winning three, had a chance to win the game, but his shot at the buzzer failed to even hit the rim. “Slovenia was better for 39 minutes, but in basketball that’s not always enough.” said Papaloukas.

Rasho Nesterovic led the Slovenians with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots. Greece will face Spain tomorrow in a rematch of the 2006 World Championships title game. (game thread)

[related thread: Greece vs Slovenia: Quarter-finals, day 2]

Day three of Eurobasket 2007 saw several upsets that changed the face of the next round:

Israel 87: Serbia 83 (game thread)
Israel shocked Serbia today behind an excellent performance from Yaniv Green. Israel was the 16th and final team to qualify for EuroBasket.

Coming into the game, many believed that the size of the Serbs (specifically Darko Milicic) would punish the Israeli team in the paint. Enter Yaniv Green, who held down the middle, scored 26 points and pulled in 12 rebounds for Israel, including two free throws that gave Israel the lead for good with under a minute left. Green’s performance was doubly-important as the 6-9 forward was matched-up against his bigger opponent, in both size and name, 7-0 Serbian center Darko Milicic (18 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks). Yotam Halperin added 17 points for Israel. Milan Gurovic scored 19 points for Serbia.

Lithuania 84: Germany 80 (game thread)
In a battle of the two unbeatens in group C, Lithuania was able to squeeze out a close-win after almost forfeiting a 21-point lead against Germany. With 11 seconds remaining, Dirk Nowitzki hit two free-throws (after hitting a three the previous possession) to bring Germany within one, but an untimely offensive foul by Ademola Okulaja on Germany’s next possession closed out any chance for Team Germany. Nowitzki put up 28 points and 9 rebounds while Ademola Okulaja had 12 points and 7 rebounds. Darjus Lavrinovic led Lithuania with 18 points, Sarunas Jasikevicius added 15 points, 10 assists and 4 rebounds and Ramunas Siskauskas had 13 points and 6 rebounds.

Portugal 77: Latvia 67 (game thread)
Andris Biedrins scored 14 points, grabbed a tournament-high 18 rebounds and blocked 3 shots for Latvia, but that wasn’t enough to overcome his team’s overall 27% from the field. On the other side, Portugal was an efficient 9-18 from three and 90% (20-22) from the free throw line. Portugal was led by forward Joao Santos who scored 14 points and had 8 rebounds, and Mário-Gil Fernandes had 14 points. For Latvia, Kristaps Janicenoks hit 4-6 from three, 9-10 from the free throw line and scored 22 points, but missed all five of his two-point attempts.

Even with the win, it did not guarantee Portugal a spot into the next round. Croatia would have to defeat Spain for the Portuguese to advance, and if the Spanish beat Croatia, Latvia would move on.

Slovenia 67: France 66 (game thread)
Slovenia continues to surprise, bringing their overall mark to 3-0 with an impressive win over France.

Slovenia led 67-65 with 0.1 seconds left. Tony Parker, the 2007 NBA Finals MVP, went to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game with two free throws, but was only able to convert one. France focused their defense on Jaka Lakovic (Lakovic only got one shot up; he missed), so his backcourt mate Domen Lorbek responded with 15 points (5-5 from the field). Matjaz Smodis added 15 points and 6 rebounds for the Slovenians. Despite missing the crucial free-throw, Tony Parker scored 25 points for Las Bleus and Ronny Turiaf had 13 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Russia 61: Greece 53 (game thread)
Greece just couldn’t get their offense going against the Russians today and succumbed from 37% from the field and 58% from the free-throw line. Super Greek backcourt Dmitrios Diamantidis and Theo Papaloukas combined for 16 points, 9 turnovers and just 2 assists. Andrei Kirilenko collected 17 rebounds, 12 points and 5 turnovers for Russia, while JR Holden scored 17 points. V asillis Spanoulis led Greece with 12 points but shot just 3-9 from the field and 4-8 from the free throw line.

Turkey 80: Czech Republic 72 (game thread)
The Turks got their first win over the tired-Czechs. Mehmet Okur and Hidayet Turkoglu led Turkey to a 15-2 start, and the duo finished with 16 points at the end of the first quarter. The Czechs fought back in the next quarter, to come within three, but another 15-0 run expanded the Turkish lead to 46-31 at the half.

CR made a couple more runs in the second half, but wouldn’t be able to overtake Turkey. Lubos Barton scored 22 points for the Cezch Republic. For Turkey, Memo Okur finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, Turkoglu scored 22 points, had 5 rebounds and 5 turnovers. Ibrahim Kuatluay scored 17 points after being held to zero points yesterday by Germany.

Croatia 85: Spain 84 (game thread)
In a day of upsets, this was probably the biggest one. Marko Tomas hit a three with 3.1 seconds left and Rudy Fernandez couldn’t convert the final shot; lifting the Croatian National Team over the 2006 World Champions Spain.

Spain, had been unbeaten for not only the two games of EuroBasket, but for 28 straight international competitions going back. The win gave the Croatians the top seed coming out of Group B.

Rudy Fernandez had a chance to win the game, but his drive into the heart of the Croatian defense yielded no basket. As the Spanish team complained that Fernandez was fouled on the drive, the Croatians celebrated their win. The three Markos led the Croatian team: Marko Popovic scored 18 points, Marko Banic grabbed 9 rebounds (+12 points), and Marko Tomas passed for 4 assists in addition to hitting the game-winning three. Pau Gasol’s 26 points led the Spanish, Rudy Fernandez added 14 points and 3 steals and Felipe Reyes had 10 points and 10 rebounds. With the win, Croatia will face Israel in the first round, while Spain will face Greece.

Italy 79: Poland 70 (game thread)
The stakes were high- the winner of this game would move on, the loser would go home. Poland finished the first quarter with a 16-14 lead, but Italy would capture the rest of the quarters, behind a strong second that included a 22-6 run. Marco Belinelli led Italy with 20 points and Andrea Bargnani went for 19 points and 7 rebounds. Lucasz Koszarek put up a double-double for the Polish, 10 points and 11 assists. Andrzej Pluta scored 15 points and Adam Wojcik had 12 and 6 rebounds. Massimo Bulleri added 10 points, 8 assists, and 6 rebounds for Team Italy.

With the completion of today’s games Latvia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Poland have been eliminated from the tournament. The top three teams from the four groups move into two groups of six in the second phase, which starts in Madrid on Friday, September 7th, with the results from the first phase carrying over.

EuroBasket 2007 commenced yesterday, here’s a quick recap of all the games…

Slovenia 69: Italy 68
The game of the night had to be Slovenia-Italy, as the two teams changed leads four times in the last 30 seconds.

The Italians had made a furious comeback, after being down 13 with just five minutes remaining. Massimo Bulleri hit back-to-back baskets and Italy finally grabbed the lead from Slovenia 65-64 with 30 seconds to go in the game.

From there it was all Jaka Lakovic: Lakovic dribbled into traffic, drew a foul and hit two free throws to put Slovenia up 66-65 with 14 seconds remaining. Massimo Bulleri answered again as he took a pass from Gianluca Basile and hit a three from the corner, putting Italy up 68-66.

With five seconds left, Jaka Lakovic took the inbounds pass, dribbled up-court quickly, crossed his dribble over and launched a straight-away three pointer that hit nothing but net giving Slovenia the 69-68 victory with no time left. Matjaz Smodis, who has missed the last several Eurobaskets because of injuries, returned to lead the Slovenians in scoring with 20 points.

Obviously, Smodis believed that the win was crucial not only because it improved Slovenia’s hopes to advance but for their confidence and how to close out an opponent “The win against Italy has given us further confidence that we can beat top teams. We know that this game is crucial for us and we cannot fail. However, we must learn to be able to control the game when we are leading and not do as we did against Italy when we allowed them to get back in the game.”

Check out the video of the last three minutes and the final shot.

Spain 82: Portugal 56
Host country Spain got Jorge Garbajosa back just in time, but lost Juan Carlos Navarro right before the game. La Bomba was sidelined for three games because of a leg injury. The Spanairds beat Portugal handily 82-56, but had to withstand an early challenge from their Iberian counterparts before eventually taking control of the game late in the first quarter. Portugal was only down 16-13 when Spain went on a 16-0 run spanning the Pau Gasol scored 19 points and had 3 assists. Joao Santos and Paulo Cunha each scored 9 points for Portugal.

Russia 73: Serbia 65
Russia defeated Serbia 73-65 behind a great all-around performance from Andrei Kirilenko. The Utah Jazz player had 24 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks. The Russian defense shut down the middle for Darko Milicic, who scored only 9 points on 2-13 shooting and held the Serbian team to a 32.7 field goal percentage. Victor Khryapa scored 11 points and pulled in 9 rebounds, Milan Gurovic scored 24 points for the Serbs.

Germany 83: Czech Republic 78 (OT)
Germany rode 35 points and 11 rebounds from Dirk Nowitzki in putting down a tougher than expected Czech Republic 83-78 in overtime. Former North Carolina player Ademola Okulaja contributed13 points and 11 rebounds, while Mithat Demirel added 18 points for Germany. Jiri Welsch led the Czechs with 24 points, while sharpshooter Lubos Barton scored 14 points, it was on only 2-11 shooting. Barton also contributed 10 rebounds.

Latvia 85: Croatia 77
Latvia shocked Croatia with strong play from all-around. The Latvians hit 11-18 three pointers but their defense was what won the game for them. Every time the Croatians made a run, Latvia had an answer on the defensive whether taking a charge or coming up with a timely steal. Armands Skele led Latvia with 17 points and 5 assist, and centre Andris Biedrins scored 14 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Mario Kasun was 7-8 from the field and scored 18 for team Croatia.

France 74: Poland 66
France was surely the favorite in this match especially since Poland’s roster was depleted with injuries. France led throughout but was never safely ahead to get comfortable. Tony Parker scored 16 points and passed out 4 assists, but only shot 5-16 from the field. Tariq Kirksay added 12 points for France. Adam Wojcik led Poland with 19 points, while Filip Dylewicz contributed with 8 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

Greece 76: Israel 66
Israel was the final qualifier for the Eurobasket and found themselves with no relief in sight as they faced the heavily-favorited Greeks in their first match. The Greeks, led by Vasillis Spanoulis with 19 points, were not able to put their opponents away until a flurry of late three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Without Antonis Fotsis, forwards Kostas Tsartsaris and Demos Dikoudis each scored 15 points for Greece. Yotam Halperin led Israel with 20 points and 6 assists

Lithuania 86: Turkey 69
Lithuania welcomed Sarunas Jasikevicius back to the national team, and the Golden Boy looked as if never missed a beat with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. On the other side, Turkey welcomed back their NBA players Hidayet Turkoglu (18pts) and Mehmet Okur (11 points and 10 rebounds), but the two combined to shoot just 8-26 from the field. And their performance was representative of their offensive woes as Turkey couldn’t find a rhythm for their offense. Rimantas Kaukenas had 14 points for Lithuania while NBA players Linas Kleiza and Darius Songalia each had 12 points. Ramunas Siskauskas added 10, all in the first quarter. Ibrahim Kuatluay scored 17 for Turkey.

[Eurobasket 2007 forum] [official site]